Hi Lisa,
This just seems like the month I have to deal with all the issues about family and who I actually left behind.
The post of conversation was eye awakening for me. Maybe it was time for me to deal with the whole issue.
The mother thinks that the ultimate sacrifice for Jehovah was ignoring her own flesh and blood. Look at me Jehovah, I gave her up, never to hug or kiss her again. Look what I did for you, in the words printed in your divine books....look at me, I gave it up for you! I deserve safe passage into the new system because I turned my back on my daughter. The one that loved you beyond words, the one that proclaimed to all she had faith. I did what you wanted Jehovah.
I then went offline took a drive and came back. During the drive I thought about this whole situation. The mother wants Jehovah to find favor in her, the daughter wants to be free of indoctrination and to live life as it was meant to be lived. Not in a hour glass full of sand waiting for the end to come.
How does this daughter of hers feels? Her mom was her everything all her life until she decided to change course. I look at my own daughter, so fragile, so precious, so loving, so willing to give of herself for others and she looks up to me to be there when she graduates, when she goes to college, when she gets married, just to hold her hand as she walks through life. To tell her I don't agree with your lifestyle and I can never talk to you again would literally kill her soul and spirit.
Then I thought about the mother, my mom loves me and i understand the whole situation and I know I hurt her and she does not reach out of her shell to others, even after dad died. I have hurt others I left behind but I can't go back and the love is conditional on going back. Such an ambivalence of pleasing Jehovah and loving a child.
If this is love then why does it hurt so much? It feels like the North and South are fighting again but just in the realm of religion.
Cathy